He Who Laughs Last
by EvilProduct
Summary: One-Shot. If they are making a third Batman movie after The Dark Knight, I think this would be a good connector between the two after Ledger's death. I wrote this in like an hour after watching TDK for like the hundreth time. Enjoy! Please Review!


**He Who Laughs Last…**

_The Narrows were once one of the darkest and dankest places in all of Gotham City. After the Scarecrow attacked Gotham City and let the inmates of Arkham Asylum out, the Narrows became a gigantic prison island. Everyone was evacuated and a defensive perimeter was set up around it. Gotham City is still trying to round up all the prisoners who escaped._

_Harvey Dent seemed to be the city's best chance for survival. Dent began a city wide war on crime and rounded up all the highest level criminals in Gotham's history. Within the next year, Gotham had regained its status as a prosperous city and working home again. With Dent on the city's side, anything was possible._

_But to every light there is a dark. Someone needed to show this city the true meaning of chaos. Introducing a little anarchy upsets the established order and everything becomes chaos. Its amazing what you can do to a little city with a few drums of gas and a couple of bullets. This is exactly what I have done. I alone have upset the established order and made everything chaos, and now the Batman takes the blame._

_Its one thing to hate me, but to make a mockery of my own joke, that's just cruel. My jokes were funny, and my jokes were revolutionary. This city has changed because of me. This city is different, forever. With Batman taking the blame, he sets the order right again. Two-Face killed those people, not Batman. And now he takes the blame to protect the innocent people of Gotham, oh how sad! Now you see, this is what happens when an unstoppable force meets and immovable object. My chaos was restored to peacefulness. I am the dark and Harvey was the light, with only Batman being the gray area between. He is either light nor dark, and that…well, that makes me laugh._

_Now the Arkham guards are coming to get me. They'll be coming to take me away to another prison, cause Arkham just isn't enough for me. They'll say I'm insane, that I'm out of my mind. Who says that? I'm not crazy and I'm not a monster, I just see the world's true nature. So I smile, cause the world I see is oh so very funny!_

_It's time for me to say my goodbyes now. I've done what I can for this city and now I must go. So go Batman, bask in your glory. But always remember that I will be there, always in the back of your mind nagging at you. Always a guarantee of laughter just around the corner._

_HA HA__ HA __HA__ ha HA __HA__HA__HA__ ha ha HA __HA ha ha ha __HA__HA__ HA __HA__ HA HA!!!_

_Yours Truly,_

_The Joker_

--

The letter the Joker had left in his cell sent a shiver up Commissioner Jim Gordon's spine. He read it like he had just found a suicide note. It felt that way, Gotham's suicide note. Better yet, The Joker's note pledging to kill Gotham. Gordon slowly reread the words, looking for differences or something else he had missed. But the letter was still there, in his hands. It was real.

The words were sincere. The Joker, in contrast to his name was not one to kid around. He had fun killing people and creating chaos, he wouldn't lie about something like this.

Gordon set the letter down and tried to lift his cup of coffee to his lips. He found that his hand was shaking too much to keep the coffee in the cup and some spilled onto his desk. He set the cup down and tried wiping the stains from his desktop planner with a napkin. But he knew the stain had already seeped. The third Wednesday of each month would look brown until the end of the year now. Gordon looked up at the clock and then outside. The sun was going down. He needed to talk with him. He needed to meet with him on the roof of the MCU. Gordon needed to see Batman and tell him that the Joker had done the impossible…and escaped from Arkham Asylum.

--

The bat-signal was destroyed months ago. Gordon himself had took an axe to it, a sign of animosity against the Batman. The city was on a manhunt against him, chasing the fabricated story of the Batman he has shouldered to protect the city from the Joker. Gordon wasn't sure how he did it, but Batman showed up on the roof anyway. _This man is a mystery,_ Gordon thought, _and I am his keeper_.

"What did you want to see me for?" Batman asked with the gravely voice of his. _Doesn't that hurt him to talk like that? That can't be his real voice._

"How did you know I-"

"Why did you want to see me?" This was the normal Batman he was talking to, blunt and adverse to personal questions.

"There's been a development…with the Joker." Gordon said, his voice faltering trying to get out the villain's name.

"What kind of development?" Gordon produced the letter from his pocket and handed it to Batman. The caped crusader unfolded the note and began to read it. When he was done he folded it back once more.

"The Joker's insane. This could mean anything. I hope his cell's even more padded at the new place."

"Uh, that's just the thing…" Gordon stuttered.

"What do you mean?"

"That letter was found in the Joker's cell when the guards came to get him."

"So?"

"The Joker…he wasn't there." Batman didn't say anything to that. "Batman, the Joker escaped before the guards got to him." Batman's cowl lowered, ashamed of a failure that wasn't his.

"We have to find him. We need to stop him. That bastard could be anywhere by now."

"The letter was found four days ago!" Gordon suddenly blurted. Batman looked back up at Gordon, visibly stunned at his words.

"What…?" Batman asked.

"The attendants of the hospital were planning to transfer the Joker from Arkham to a maximum security mental hospital where he was to be kept under lock and key for the rest of his life. I just got this letter today, and they found it four days ago. They have been so backed up after the Joker's rampage two months ago it just got lost in paperwork."

"So, what is being done?" Batman asked. "Where is he? If he's been out four days already, he has to have struck somewhere!"

"But he hasn't! He is just…gone." Gordon explained. "The Joker is gone, just evaporated into thin air. There were no tunnels in his cell, no holes blown out of the wall, no guards' keys missing, and no bent bars on his windows. He is just gone."

"How is that even possible?" Batman asked.

"I don't know, but I'm sure if the Joker was staging a comeback tour, he'd have already tried assassinating the mayor and robbing a few banks within a few hours, all the while making terrorist demands in which the ultimatums were either the deaths of the citizens of Gotham or your unmasking! I think it's safe to assume he's not in Gotham any longer."

Gordon's words made sense. So why did Batman refuse to believe them? Why did he want the Joker to be back? Why was he hoping that the Joker was back, so that he could take him down again?

'We keep this to ourselves." Batman finally said after a few moments of silence. 'The media does not find out about this. If Gotham were to know he was out, fear would overtake the streets, and that's just what he wants to happen. He uses fear as a weapon to instigate chaos and anarchy. We can't let his ghost destroy Gotham just when we have reclaimed it from his grasp. As far as Gotham is concerned, the Joker is still in Arkham."

"You took the words right out of my mouth." Gordon took the letter back from Batman's hand and produced a lighter from his jacket pocket.

"You came prepared?" Batman asked.

"It doesn't hurt." Gordon flicked the Zippo open and caught the fuse aflame. The letter was ash in seconds. The smoke rose up to the sky. Gordon looked up at the sky, hoping that the Joker truly was gone for good and he wasn't looking up at the same stars as he was.

--

_Dear friend,_

_I know you don't know me, not my handwriting anyway. But rest assured I do know you. I've been following your work for a while. Cyber-hacking can be a hard thing to do. I know I'd never do it. No, I'm more of a gasoline, dynamite, and serrated knifes kind of guy._

_I write you today to say that I have left a, shall we say, impressive pair of shoes to fill that I won't be stepping into anytime soon. I need a vacation, so I'm taking one, and I've named you as my successor._

_Don't try to hide the fact that you're registered to several "I Hate Batman" websites. I've looked you u,. I'm not computer illiterate. I noticed you praised my work online, and I applaud you for it. I know you can do this my friend. I have a job for you, a job that the rough and tumble men of the Gotham City Police Department don't seem to be letting me accomplish. I think you can do a much better job._

_I will not be leaving you an address to reply to. I will wait for your infamy to rise._

_Sincerely,,_

_The Joker_

--

The letter had come as an e-mail. Of course the Joker would know he would get it that way. He only spent most of his free time with a computer beside him. The e-mail had been locked with a linguistic encryption, a riddle as it were. It was easy for him to crack the code. He specialized in riddles. He frequently left them as a fail-safe against his hacks. He felt giving the enemy a fighting chance against him was fair, even if his riddles were hard.

He needed to reply to the message. He needed to tell the Joker that he would happily fill his shoes. So, he back traced the IP address of the computer the e-mail was sent from and sent his reply. It was riddle, but an easy one for the Joker to crack.

_I wear new shoes__  
I fight for a laugh  
__I live in chaos__  
I stand up to the Bat__  
But I do not smile like enemies of old__  
I am the new threat__  
Who Am I?_

He sent the message and hoped for a reply, which he received surprisingly a minute later.

_You Are You Edward Nigma. You Are You._


End file.
